Well-known columnist Stan Buckles was friend of Rockford, the arts

Sunday

Jul 6, 2014 at 9:19 PMJul 6, 2014 at 9:19 PM

By Corina CurryRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Stan Buckles had the kind of reputation all great newsmen want.

He told it like it was. He saw the big picture. He wasn’t afraid to put the screws to an irresponsible office holder or praise someone for getting it right. He cared about his community, and his community cared about what he wrote.

Buckles was a writer and columnist for the Rockford Morning Star and Rockford Register Star from the 1950s until his retirement in 1990. He died June 17 at age 89. A private family service was held Saturday.

“He was a fine writer. He took his watchdog role very seriously,” said Judy Emerson, a former Register Star columnist who joined Buckles on the editorial page in 1985. “I think he really understood the plight of the working person and the struggling family. He could relate to them. ... He called it like he saw it. People appreciated that.”

Buckles was born in Viroqua, Wisconsin, and attended East High School in Madison, Wisconsin.

He went to the University of Wisconsin with hopes of becoming a Latin professor, but he left school after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to join the Army. He traveled extensively as a soldier, from the Mojave Desert to England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. He continued to travel well after the war, as well, especially to Italy to visit a family he helped support as part of a post-war revitalization program.

Buckles remained in close contact with the family long after his official sponsorship ended, attending weddings and graduations throughout his life and generations of the family he befriended.

He gave the family’s “secret” spaghetti recipe to close friend Wendy Perks Fisher, former president and CEO of the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, for safekeeping.

“I have his secret recipes, but he said I could share them,” Fisher said Sunday. Fisher befriended Buckles when she was a young teacher at Keith County Day School, working with the Rockford Park District in the summertime.

There was a theater program, Fisher recalled, and Buckles helped promote it, as he often did when it came to cultural events in Rockford.

“Stan loved all arts and was active supporting and promoting them,” Fisher said. “He was a great asset to Rockford and a good pal.”

Buckles wrote about government and quality-of-life issues that affected everyday residents.

Emerson called Buckles “Rockford’s proudest pedestrian.”

The newsman walked everywhere. He was struck by cars twice, Emerson said, breaking a leg one time. It prompted him to share his disdain for the state’s right-on-red traffic laws but didn’t stop him from walking.

Buckles’ words, his insight and opinions, had a profound impact on the city’s artist community, said Jim Sullivan, founder of Rockford’s New American Theater.

The theater opened in 1972. Buckles was a regular. When the writer made note of the company’s performances, it sent a strong message to the community.

“Stan saw the bigger picture,” Sullivan said. “His interest in the arts was because of his interest in seeing a cultural renaissance in the city.”

Buckles won a Gannett award for feature writing in 1984 for his weeklong series of articles about a Rockford woman’s recovery from a fiery plane crash. Gannett owned the Register Star at the time.

He stumbled upon the story, and the beginning of a lifelong friendship with Martha Howard Manning and her family, when he bought one of the artist’s prints at a local gallery. Manning, then known as Martha Bremner, was badly burned in the crash and struggling to continue with her artwork.

“Stan and my dad were polar opposites. My dad was about as far right as Stan was to the left, but they became good friends,” Manning said of Buckles and her father, John Howard, president of Rockford College.

After the passing of Buckles’ longtime companion, Helen Johnson, Buckles became part of her family, Manning said. She insisted he join them for holidays and family celebrations.

“Stan was such a special talent,” Manning said. “He took words, and he painted with them. ... We were so lucky to have such a talent and friend in Stan Buckles.”